Leadership for doctors
How leadership creates growth on steroids
How leadership creates growth on steroids
Kris Borgraeve
October 30, 2021
What does leadership mean for a doctor?
leadership for doctors
Traditional definitions refer to leadership in the context of leading a group. As a surgeon, this is about your skills when you lead the theatre team. It can also apply to your leadership over other doctors, nurses and support staff at your practice. Those leadership capacities will directly impact your reputation, at least in the industry and possibly beyond in the wider community.
Have you ever written down ‘being a thought leader’ during a brainstorm about your future? Thought leadership might come with influence, committee membership, speaker gigs, roles in the hospitals you work with or a direct influence on your waiting list. Getting there might require more than the logistics and this is where High Performance & Leadership work comes in.
In a more down-to-earth definition, leadership could be synonymous with status. Being in high demand, respected by allied health professionals who want to work with you, and valued by hospital executives who want to allocate their theatre lists. In many cases, we have seen the specialist grow as a person after we built an effective and state-of-the-art leadership profile online: a new website, a strong social media profile and content that enhances your strengths as a specialist, for example.
Whatever leadership means to you, let’s explore some of the steps you can take to increase your own version of it.
The elephant in the room: High Performance
leadership for doctors
- A drive to continuously look for ways to improve the patient numbers
- A passion to sub-specialise and do more of what they really love
- An entrepreneur mindset to convert their one-man-band (or one woman-band) into a brand that can be sold when they retire
- An eagerness to build a team, work less and spend more time doing research
- Perhaps you are still wondering how you can attract more patients. If that is the case, check out some of the other articles in our Learning Zone, where we cover proven techniques to increase your visibility and grow your practice.
- The second pitfall is maintaining balance. Working hard is one thing, raising and supporting a family and recharging your batteries is another thing. If your efforts to perform come at a cost, or if they don’t appear to be going in the direction you had in mind, it may be time to pause and inspect.
About inspecting and changing your habits
leadership for doctors
Speaking to High-Performance Consultant Jorien Staats, founder of Direct in Focus Consultancy in Adelaide, I discovered an interesting parallel. The impact of Jorien’s work becomes clear in the video below. What strikes me is that it often boils down to inspecting your mindset as a doctor. Taking the time to put things in perspective. A strategic starting point for many doctors is doing work with someone who draws from the athlete’s mindset and ample experience in the corporate and health fields, Jorien Staats.
A word about the brand experience in medical
leadership training for doctors
When Jorien explains her definition of High Performance and Leadership for Doctors, it resonates with the Strategic work we do with our customers.
Branding and brand experience are often misunderstood. ‘We found a girl on Freelancer.com who can do our logo for $50.’ Do you see what I mean? Independent of the fact that the low-cost logo might be slightly out of tune with your local market, your brand is more than the logo.
The experience starts with the energy of the person answering the phone. It’s the genuine smile at reception, the colours in the waiting room. It’s the artwork in your rooms. The tone-of-voice in your emails to patients, colleagues and suppliers. The conversations I overhear as a patient when your colleagues engage in small talk.
The reason so much attention in Google Reviews goes to bedside manners is because as a doctor you are expected to specialise and focus really hard on the patient’s health, the conditions, the treatment or the surgery. In Med School, during your Fellowship, and throughout your career as a surgeon or specialist, it’s easy to develop a blind spot for how you are perceived by the patient.
Working with a High-Performance Consultant is about who you are. Such an easy question, and yet it masks a universe of little and big things to inspect. Some of my customers bring up their age, gender or cultural origin when we discuss their profile. Understanding, knowing, and articulating your strengths can only happen when you have taken the time to open up to yourself, and that is what this is about.
What this could do for your practice
leadership coaching for doctors
If you have been pondering about a particular change you want for your career as a specialist, or for the practice that you are in, consider this.
Many specialists focus all their efforts on attending GP events. Dinners, educational presentations and networking events are the lifeline of their practice.
On the other hand, leading specialists plan regular check-ups with their mission and vision, business and personal goals, and direction for the next 12 or 24 months. And they create a strong profile that no longer relies on traditional forms of marketing alone.
That is where high performance, leadership, marketing, business results and growth all of a sudden start operating on steroids. Because the foundation is there. That foundation is you.
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leadership for doctors
- Tags: Leadership
